Monthly Archives: August 2008

NYT Searches “Rockefeller’s” Past

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In “Ready Made Rockefeller,” the New York Times Fashion & Style section (of all places) reveals a wealth of personal information about Sohus disappearance suspect Christian Gerhartsreiter, aka “Clark Rockefeller.”

IN the understated town of Cornish, N.H., where it is considered bad form to exhibit your wealth, the man calling himself Clark Rockefeller was driven around in an armored black Cadillac with bulletproof windows. He affected silk ascots and bragged that when it came to acquiring property, he could outbid anyone. He said that Helmut Kohl and Britney Spears were coming to dinner….

Among the autobiographical details he reportedly told various people at various times: his parents had been kidnapped in South America and he needed to pay ransom; he and his friends were “Star Trek” groupies who conversed in Klingon; a private chef made four-course meals for his dogs; and he became mute as a child for 10 years because he was distraught at the death of his parents in a car crash. (In truth, his mother is still alive and his father died of natural causes a few years ago.)

No Buyer for the Shire

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The Shire in Bend, OR

Bend, Oregon‘s Tolkien-themed housing development, The Shire, has fallen victim to the local real estate economy and entered foreclosure proceedings.

The dream died for many other reasons, including bad timing, legal challenges with the city of Bend over planning and permit issues, and lack of sales, [developer Ron] Meyers said.

“Some people were turned off by living in ‘Disneyland,'” he said. “It’s more of an artists’ community for a certain market segment that wanted something different. There’s been enough people that have come through that would say, ‘What a wonderful concept.’ But then the market crashed, and everyone (went) home.”

One suspects that the same Muse who inspired The Shire was behind another famous tribute to Hobbits. Yes, it’s the tune that never fails to put people in the mood (probably for ax-murdering), Leonard Nimoy singing “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”

Ray Bradbury Celebrates 88th

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Ray Bradbury 88th birthday cake

Ray Bradbury celebrated his 88th birthday in the best possible style for a great sf writer: in a bookstore, surrounded by fans with newly-purchased copies of his latest book, being feted by his colleagues.

Bradbury drew an overflow audience of well-wishers to Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, CA this afternoon. I was in the spillover crowd on the sidewalk for awhile, looking at George Clayton Johnson through the door, and Bradbury’s head through the store window. I also watched as one of Ray’s Pandemonium Theatre cadre of actors, Robert Kerr, read Padre Mappple’s sermon (Orson Welles’ role in Moby Dick.)

John King Tarpinian was part of the enthusiastic crowd. He snapped the photo of the Moby Dick birthday cake. Click on the thumbnails to see his other photos of (1) the crowd, (2) Marc Scott Zicree and Ray Bradbury, and (3) Robert Kerr doing the Padre Mapple sermon.

Crowd at bookstore Marc Scott Zicree and Bradbury Robert Kerr and Ray Bradbury

D3 Interviews Online

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Once the editing is finished, Pacific Fen Spotlight’s coverage of Denvention 3 will be highlighted by interviews with “Harry Turtledove, Marc Scott Zicree, and WSFS expert Kevin Standlee,” among others. Several are already posted.

This is great. It makes up for something I missed at the con. Turtledove spent time in the fanzine lounge and I saw Zicree at the Hugo pre-reception, but I couldn’t fight my way through the parliamentary groupies to say hello to Kevin.

Keeping an Eye on Sea World

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Mike and Sierra at Sea WorldMike and Sierra at Sea World

Sierra, her grandmother “Omi” and I toured Sea World while Diana was attending Mythcon XXXIX. Here, father, daughter and the Giant Squid eye pose for the camera.

I especially wanted to post the photo so I could say how it brought back memories of my childhood visits to another theme park, Disneyland, and the dramatic moment in the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride when this fellow got hold of the Nautilus:

Giant Squid from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride

Nextbook Traces Ellison’s Roots

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Daniel Oppenheimer begins his article about Harlan Ellison in Nextbook (“a new read on Jewish Culture”) by quoting what Neil Gaiman says about him at the end of the documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth, then declares:

It’s a nice denouement to the film, which is both a hagiography of Ellison—a talented writer, but not one for the ages—and a character study of a certain kind of Jewish boy, belonging to a certain generation, whose life has been a running battle between his talents and his demons.

Oppenheim develops this thesis throughout the rest of the piece.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]

Straw Man on Fire! Dial 911!

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“There’s no such thing as science fiction fandom,” Eoghann Irving declared on Solar Flare yesterday. Fans immediately rushed to the site for an explanation of their nonexistence from the new anti-Descartes. Instead, they found that Irving only meant:

It would be more accurate to claim that there’s no such thing as a single unifying science fiction fandom.

There’s not one monolithic fandom? Shock! Horror! What earth-shattering news will he reveal next? (“Today on Solar Flare, Eoghann Irving announced the breakup of the Soviet Union…”)

Irving goes on to observe:

I think there’s a strong case to be made that historically there used to be one.

Nothing controversial there, even Arnie Katz would agree. The question is: When did things change? My answer is, in a nutshell:

By the 1950s, science fiction fans had developed the activities that comprise fandom, such as clubs, conventions and fan publishing. Once the concepts had been proven workable, to use them to organize people around other interests was “just engineering.” It started in earnest when comics fandom spun off in the 1960s, and the real “big bang” happened when Star Trek was syndicated in the early 1970s.

(Richard Lynch has collected some data about this in his outline of 1960s fan history, see chapter 6.)

Surveying the myriad internet communities that each discuss their own slice of the sf or fantasy genre, Irving observed that it’s sometimes disappointing when two people who think of themselves as science fiction fans don’t actually have any common interests:

But the scale of the genre now is such that you really can’t assume that another science fiction fan will like or even be interested in what you are interested in.

While there’s some truth in that warning, it’s not due to “scale” (numbers of participants) or technology, but individual personalities. Just consider the bitter political schism between a couple of small groups in the microscopic fandom of 1939 that led to the exclusion of one faction from the very first World Science Fiction Convention.

In the end, Irving finds himself admitting that people generally don’t have one exclusive interest:

And in most cases online groups haven’t become so specialized that they only discuss one topic and no other science fiction. So I’m overstating my case a little.

After that nothing more needs to be said than, “Welcome to Big Tent fandom on the internet!”

[Via SF Signal.]

New Jetpack Startup

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Martin Jetpack

Whether the Martin Jetpack even deserves the name is controversial:

The fact that the device reached no more than 6 ft. of altitude during its various test runs at Oshkosh could indicate that it’s not achieving true flight, but a limited amount of lift, due to a phenomenon called “ground effect.” Spinning blades can create a cushion of air below a vehicle, which is how hovercrafts glide across the water.

That, and other abuse is being heaped on the startup by its competitors, in a Popular Mechanics article.

David Klaus forwarded the link along with his own comments:

More breathy coverage of the fledgling commercial jetpack industry. I remember Linda Bushyager once saying about the NASFiC, “It was an idea whose time should never have come.” Whether that applies here, further deponent sayeth not. Best comment I ever saw about jetpacks: comic book scene in which the Atom stares, jaw-dropped, as the villain escapes and says, “Wow. Jetpack Hitler. Reality has jumped the shark.”

Craig Miller’s Aussie Trip

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Craig Miller has written a movie that’s to be the pilot for a science fiction television series called Resistance. The production people flew Craig and Genny to Australia a couple of months ago so Craig could participate in some of the developmental activities.

Now Craig has compiled the messages sent during the trip into a report and added a lot of great photos. The one of him standing in giant shark jaws is my favorite.